PITTSBURGH – The Ohio Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention Battalion partnered with four Hacking for Defense students at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to increase Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores in Ohio after seeing a decline in scores after COVID-19.
Hacking for Defense (H4D) is a university course sponsored by the Department of Defense that teaches students, using the Lean Launchpad methodology, to work with DoD and intelligence communities to address the nation’s emerging threats and security challenges. The course has been taught at more than 65 universities nationwide since its inception.
Ohio’s Recruiting and Retention Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Michael Antonas, oversees 134 recruiters in their respective regions. Antonas worked with the CMU team this spring to understand why enlistment in the Ohio Army National Guard has been down.
The Ohio Army National Guard initially asked the students to focus on the propensity of people to serve in Ohio. That problem was too broad for students on the team to ‘hack’ during the semester on top of their other classes. However, the student team conducted 21 beneficiary interviews and, through problem exploration, discovered the reason for the decreased recruitment is partly because of a decrease in ASVAB scores in Ohio over the past five years. That decrease in scoring has caused more recruits to fail out of the recruiting pipeline.
The recruiters interviewed by the student team said there is a need to pretest the enlistees and systematically prepare them better before taking their first ASVAB. The student team also looked at pretesting platforms that already exist. Pending Internet Computerized Adaptive Test (PiCAT), the unproctored prescreen version of the ASVAB, was one of the platforms. However, the student team realized PiCAT is missing feedback and resources to better guide the
enlistees to pass the test.
The CMU team developed their Minimum Viable Product (MVP), an ASVAB preparation site where recruiters can assign subtest sections to candidates in specific skills and check their progress and learning. The website has a two-pronged capability. The first is the training program that helps recruiters prepare to communicate and provide the ASVAB prep resources. The second is a recruiter dashboard to assist recruitment leadership with an analysis of the ASVAB score distribution, perceived difficulty of the exam and the general education level of enlistees. In addition, the dashboard includes a summary of all interviews and accessibility to update the training program for the future.
Once the MVP was developed, the student team conducted usability testing with a controlled group of recruiters to assess the website’s structure, usability and
effectiveness. The feedback from recruiters was positive.
Antonas said it is the “best product for ASVAB training out there.”
Others also mention the easy navigation and how the breakdown of complex topics was translated into straightforward sections. There were other critiques the student teams received that helped refine the website design to better align with training needs.
Though it was a successful project, the students opted not to work with the Ohio Army National Guard beyond the semester.
“It was a great experience working with the National Guard and the team felt good about building a tool that will benefit the enlistees and the overall recruiting process,” said Olivia, one of the student participants.
The student team has handed the website’s ownership to Antonas and his team, who have already deployed the tool to the 134 recruiters in Antonas’ battalion. The recruiters will send it to their applicants and use it as a resource for remedial training. Once the tool is fully fleshed out, Antonas plans to share it with the Ohio Air National Guard and deploy it to their Standards for Training Readiness Advisory Group (STRAG) Region – Region 4, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.